First Day at School

Tomorrow is Tobey's first day at Kid's Day Out and I am so excited for him and a little nervous. He has never done anything like this before besides the hour or two in the nursery on Sunday mornings. And more times than not I am recruited to help out in his classroom. So this is going to be a whole new experience for him. I know he is going to learn so much from the other kids. Plus it will allow me to get more than just an hour or two of sleep on Mondays after working at the hospital all night on Sunday. Oh, and I have big plans for Friday. A little bit of late "spring cleaning", a much needed trip to the dentist and women's doctor, a pedicure for sure, some window shopping, and I might throw in a real workout. Seriously, though I am thinking about joining a gym now that I will have some free time. It is time. Way past and beyond time. It will be nice to have some time to do things for me and not feel guilty about asking someone to keep Tobey. Although I do feel this slight guilt about starting Kid's Day Out. Tobey's school is 9-2:30. Since he usually sleeps til 9:30 or 10 every morning this might be a problem. I have been working on an earlier nightime schedule but it is slow progress because he has grown accustomed to staying up later with Mommy & Daddy. He really needs his 12 hours of sleep every night so I am trying to push his bedtime back to 8 or at least 8:30. We are slowly getting there. So to Tobey I say:

My dear little man,

I can't believe you are big enough for school. You are growing up too fast for Mommy. I can't wait to see all that you will learn and create. The new words you will speak and the new friends you will make. I pray that you will adjust to your new schedule and thrive on being in a new environment. This is a new adventure and you will have so much fun!

Adventures in Walmart Land

Walmart is a frequent stop in my household. I really prefer Super Target but try to do most of my grocery shopping at Walmart because it is cheaper. A visit to Walmart or any store for that matter is always an adventure when you have a toddler. Some things are a necessity for grocery shopping. I would never enter a store without 1) Sippy cup, 2) snack of some sort, 3) Pacifier-although this one is losing interest with my little one 4)Hand sanitizer/wipees, and 5) Advil. Tobey usually grows quite restless while in the store because his Mommy is a long winded shopper. I can go in for milk, end up browsing through the whole store, and come out with five bags. I have a partner in crime though. My mother-in-love. She is just as bad as I am. We often go shopping together. Even if she doesn't need a thing she will ride with me and keep me company and help with Tobey.

I have to detour here and say a few things about my Pat. She is the best mother-in-love ever as well as friend. I can call her up at any time and she will be there. Pat has been the example of a wife, mother, and servant of Jesus that I want to be. She is beautiful and I love her dearly!

Okay, back to Walmart. Today we needed milk and shampoo. I thought, Walmart has both of those, so I called up Pat. She said yes even though she is wearing a boot on her right foot and is waiting to have surgery to alleviate intense pain she has been experiencing in that foot. She has a heart of gold. I dropped her and Tobey off at the front entrance and parked. Today is Memorial Day and Walmart is a little more packed than usual so I have to park a ways out. Once inside, I spot Tobey with his Mimi and meet up with them. Tobey will not sit in the buggy like a normal child. He has to stand in the back part of the buggy. Am I a terrible mother because I let him? The buggy is never left unattended and sometimes it is just easier to give into his demands. We start shopping. Stop. Tobey is already a little fussy and I realize that it is his lunchtime so I grab a happy meal. He eats while we shop. Perfect. Our shopping continues. Stop. Tobey is thirsty but his sippy cup is empty and I have to fill it up again. We continue shopping. Stop. Tobey spits out chewed up french fries and nuggets and I clean him up. Time to put the happy meal away. He ate almost two nuggets though. I am impressed. We continue shopping. Stop. Tobey gives his Mimi a mischievous grin and she stops to see what he his doing in the bottom of the buggy. We finally make it to the checkout with two buggy's worth of groceries and realize our groceries are integrated. We began to sort through what belongs to who. Tobey really gets into handing Mimi cans out of the buggy and even throws a few on the floor. He is such a helper. As we are paying Tobey finds his happy meal and begins shaking the nuggets and fries out into the buggy and floor. I am able to save a nugget and a few fries. Tobey eats a fry.

Finally we are done. As we make our way to the exit, each of us pushing a buggy, we see that it has started sprinkling. I offer to get the car and Pat says she doesn't mind getting a little wet. Halfway there, as I was thinking this is kind of refreshing, it starts down pouring. Pat and I both scream as we race to the car. She is trying to hurry as fast as she can but her boot is slowing her down. Tobey is still standing in the buggy and begins to cry as he is pelted with raindrops. We reach the car and I get him in first thing. Pat and I load up the groceries getting soaked at the same time. As we close the trunk, the rain stops. I look over at Pat and her mascara is streaming down her face and we are both laughing. Where was the camera? Lord, thank you for the rain, thank you for my mother-in-love, thank you for the adventures in life that can be found even at Walmart.

Tobey and his Mimi

Yard Day and a helper

Tobey loves to help. I often call him my little helper. He is also learning valuable things while being a helper. He has learned how to throw his trash away, place his dirty dishes in the sink, and put his dirty clothes in the hamper. These have not become routine yet but he will do them if I ask. Hopefully they will stick and he will continue doing them into his teen years. He also likes to wipe the table and the floor clean because he sees me do that several times a day. We are working on helping Mommy put the toys away but he tends to just pull out as I am putting away. Well, he got to help his Daddy mow the yard for the first time and he was very excited about it. He received a toy lawnmower for his first birthday that I put up because he wasn't walking at the time and then winter came along and I forgot about it. I finally pulled it out and Tobey had so much fun. He was so excited when he realized that he was just like Daddy. I am sure Rodney will appreciate the day when Tobey can really help. While the boys worked on the yard, I had fun playing around with my new camera.


Our beautiful roses. They are really doing well this year.


Little helper pushing Daddy's lawnmower


My sweet hubby in his work hat


Such glee on his face


I'm just like Daddy


Okay, time to rest

Babe's it is!

Several friends have told me that we really need to eat at Babe's. Well we finally made it. We went tonight with some close friends of ours and it was as good as promised. We started out kind of late and we were a little worried about the crowd on a Saturday night but we waited less than 30 minutes and they were very busy. Everything was delicious. Even my picky eater thought so. Although he still wouldn't eat the green beans, he chowed down on the cream corn and he loved the biscuits with honey. Those were my favorite too. I also had the opportunity to try out my new camera that I got for Mother's Day. It is awesome, I luuuuv it! My old camera had been around for several years and my pictures were starting to turn out blurry and it had the longest delay before actually taking the picture. I have missed so many good pictures of Tobey because of that delay. We were all pretty stuffed when we left. Tobey's little tummy was round and full. Rodney and I both commented on how good we feel when we know Tobey has a full belly and he enjoyed his food. It is often a struggle to get him to eat at all. Greg and Rebecca came back to our place and Tobey was so excited to have visitors. He is always in such a good mood when people come over and he gets a little silly. It is cute. While everyone else went to blockbuster I got Tobey ready for bed. He was such a good boy. He didn't fuss at all when we were puttting on his PJ's and he even let me brush his teeth without a fight. When I laid him in his bed he just stared up at me sweetly and closed his eyes. I think he was asleep before I even left the room probably dreaming about those biscuits and honey. Rebecca and the boys brought back a movie and it was a girly movie. Go Rebecca! It was a very fun evening hanging out with our fabulous friends and Babe's has become one of my favorite dining places!

Shoo Fly!

We are having a fly problem. I noticed it Monday night when I killed 3 flys in 3o minutes. One of which was huge and nasty. I hate flys! We don't even own a flyswatter because it has never been an issue before. I needed one this week. On Tuesday I was attacked by a fly that flew in my hair while I was sitting at the computer. What was he thinking? I swatted him good. There were several other casualties of the same sort throughout the day. That night while I was reading in bed I heard this bzzing noise but I could not find that darn fly. Even my Jack Russell was looking around the room. He checked under the bed for me and gave me one of his quizzical looks as if to say "I just don't know". I finally realized the sound was coming from my lamp. The fly was stuck under the lamp shade and could't seem to find his way out. I swatted at him several times as he tried to make his escape. Scooter got very excited and was running around the room barking. Then the room went dark. I hit the lamp a little hard and caused the bulb to burn out. That one got away and I didn't hear from him the rest of the night. Thankfully Tobey and I were out of the house all day on Wednesday but that evening I was reminded again of our fly problem. My husband and I were baffled at how they were getting into the house. He is in the process of redoing his office and all that is on the walls is sheetrock right now. I actually checked for holes. As I gathered the trash together before I went to bed last night I discovered the problem. Several months ago we moved the diaper pail to our sunroom. It is attached to the back of our house but not part of our heating and cooling system. We often leave the door to the backyard open during the day so Scooter can go in and out (we have a doggy door from the house to the sunroom). Anyway, as I stepped out into the sunroom, I noticed dead flies on the windowsill and a few around the diaper pail. And when I opened the diaper pail, well you can imagine... My sweet husband who usually takes the trash out had not emptied the diaper pail in a while. It was bad, real bad. The diaper pail received a good lysoling and I have only killed two flys today although I can hear one bzzzing right now....

The Beginning

Since I am new to the blogging thing and my son is almost 2 years old, I thought I would do a little recap.

Pre-Tobey:

Not many people know this, but we actually tried for a year and a half before I got pregnant. It was definitely a struggle emotionally and spiritually. I have always dreamed of having a family and I selfishly thought that I deserved the easy road because of past hurts. After a year of trying I went to my OB and had several tests. All of my blood work came back normal. Rodney and I decided to wait another year before we had any further testing. Month after month God worked on my heart until I completely gave my struggle to him. As I look back at that time in my life I am so thankful for the growth that I experienced. I developed a love for His word and I learned so much about His character. We have a women's prayer time at our church on Saturday nights. It is mostly to pray for Sunday mornings but we would often share what was going on in each other's life. This particular night there were only four of us. The pastor's wife, another minister's wife, my mother-in-law, and myself. For the first time I opened up and shared what was on my heart and how much I desired to have a child. Those sweet ladies prayed for me and I was filled with peace. Two months later I found out I was pregnant. God is good!

"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

The day Tobey arrived:

I started having contractions on Labor Day while we were eating at Red Lobster with Rodney's mom but they were not consistent and actually went away after we got home and I rested. I woke up the next morning with contractions that were every 4 to 5 minutes apart so we went to the hospital. The nurse examined me, had me walk around the hospital several times and then reexamined me. I had only dilated to one and I was sent home with false labor. I was devastated because the labor felt very real to me. The nurse did not want to send me home and told us we would probably be back later in the day. She was right. After a long morning of sitting on the couch or bent over hugging a pillow through a contraction, we went back to the hospital around noon. By then I had dilated to 6. My husband was such a wonderful coach especially before I got my epidural. He held my hand and rubbed my back with such concern on his face. I was in alot of pain and a little out of it. The epidural immediately started working and it was wonderful. I highly recommend one. I started pushing around 2pm and had Tobey had 3:10pm. He was so alert and bright and beautiful. I fell deeply in love. Our family and friends who had been waiting patiently came in a little bit later and I sat Tobey up in my lap. Everyone crowded around my bed and he just stared from one side to the next soaking them all in. It was incredible and the best day of my life.



I love being a mom. It is the greatest blessing in my life and also the greatest challenge. The first challenge was breastfeeding. It took us about two weeks to get that one down. I can remember one particular night that first week. I was trying to get Tobey to latch on and it just wasn't working and he was crying and I was crying. Rodney walked in and I said "please, just give me a bottle". Just as Rodney was handing me the bottle, Tobey latched on. He made his decision and we had a beautiful nursing relationship for 14 months. Oh, how I miss those days when we would cuddle up in bed together. The second challenge is eczema. Tobey developed eczema around 6 weeks and we still battle with dry skin. Lotion is a necessity around our house. The third challenge is food allergies. Tobey is allergic to dairy and eggs. Add that to the fact that he is a picky eater and I could pull my hair out. I so hope and pray that he grows out of these food allergies for his sake and my sanity. But these challenges are small compared to the blessing and joy he is. He really is a sweet little boy with a personality all his own. He can crack me up with his goofiness but is quick to let me know when he doesn't want to be bothered. He loves to be outside where he digs in the dirt with sticks or picks up rocks to give to Mommy as a present. And he most always cries when it is time to go back inside. Most of all, I love it when he suprises me with a kiss or the way his face lights up when Daddy comes home. I am overwhelmed at times by the joy he brings to my life. So that is where the name of my blog comes from. I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart........

Motherhood: The Ups and Downs

I believe I have the sweetest little boy in the world. I am sure all mothers think the same of their own children. However, this past week I did not think that I had the sweetest little boy in the world. In fact by the time Thursday rolled around I was quite ready to go to work and I met Rodney at the door with Tobey and a quick kiss goodbye. It was one of those days where everything I did was wrong and I just wanted my little boy to be happy. Blame it on his incoming molars but I think he was tired of his Mommy because he was a perfect angel for his Daddy that evening and the next morning. But as soon as I woke up, the whining began. Whining is such a negative word but he truly was whining. And I am the only one he whines to. Rodney and I already had plans to spend the night away for our anniversary on Friday night. Rodney's sister came and spent the night with Tobey at our house. I so needed a night away, not to work but to have fun and relax. And I did but Tobey crossed my mind every 5 minutes or so. As much as I enjoyed time alone with my husband I couldn't help but think of my boy. We got home Saturday afternoon. Tobey had spent the day with his PawPaw. When I walked in the door, Tobey's face lit up and he began jumping up and down and waving his arms. It was the sweetest homecoming ever. The past week melted away and I only wanted to be near my son. This was my Tobey. Exuberant, rambunctious, happy, loving his Mommy. I guess we both just needed a little break from each other.